Public Housing Spotlight
on NYCHA

Issue 52
Published on March 28, 2000

(Click Here for NYCHA "preliminary" Audit
by NYC Comptroller Alan Hevesi)

(Click Here for Directory of Issues)

NYCHA Heroics?
Save the Records,
not the People!

Well, that $100,000,000 lease that Kalman Finkel had NYCHA sign with his friends is again about to make news. The following information has come our way over the last few weeks. Our sources tell us that the previous occupant of the LIC warehouse didn't leave voluntarily. The building had been condemned, even before Finkel's Friends began their roles in this scam. Those old owners had to get out, or risk getting themselves buried in the rubble.

Click on the appropriate link to view
earlier stories on this political boondoggle:

Issue 3, Issue 7, Issue 19,

Issue 23, Issue 37, and Issue 47.

According to more than one source, the main problem is that one side of the building is sinking into the water at the creek's edge! The entire building is being twisted downward and it's literally breaking apart!

On March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, people from the Heating Division of Tech Services almost got to shake that departed Saint's hand. They were surveying the space in the building where NYCHA had assigned them to set up shop. Suddenly, a large chunk of the ceiling and the wall came crashing down.

A few months ago, we published our sources' worries about a similar life-threatening occurrence. This time too, NYCHA was VERY lucky. Lives where spared as no people were standing near the collapse. However, the law of averages would seem to dictate that some people will eventually be killed by falling debris, or more likely by a partial collapse of the whole building.

Our warehouse mouse tells us that the same thieves who own the L.I.C. death trap also own the Bush Terminal buildings. He/she further states that Finkel's Friends' won't collect any lease money from NYCHA until the first box is placed in the L.I.C. Warehouse. So these thieves have now doubled the Bush Terminal rent in order to force NYCHA into sending in the lease money for the L.I.C. building. Talk about covering your bets!

Two weeks ago, Records Storage was officially moved from Bush Terminal to L.I.C. Or was it? A funny thing happened on the way to L.I.C. All the records disappeared into thin air!

Well not really. They've probably been packed into trailers and stashed somewhere in the city so NYCHA won't have to pay double rent, or even to avoid the risk of beginning to pay rent for the L.I.C. death trap only to have a major scandal on their hands when people on stretchers begin to be carried out of Finkel's Palace!

If you've ever watched a truck back up to a loading dock, then you know they try to just touch the dock gently. Sometimes, they bump it instead. It won't take more than a few bumps to bride down many large pieces of the building, and more likely to cause the collapse of an entire section! There is not even a Certificate of Occupancy for this death trap because the problems that brought about the condemnation are not yet, and probably can't be, corrected.

The building, like London Bridge, is falling down! Unlike the nursery rhyme people will be injured and most likely some will die. A source tells us that the mayor was told about the weak floors in the building, and he directed that no material be stored there and no rent be paid for the warehouse portion of the building until the weak floor problem is corrected. Of course, keeping records out of a condemned building is a good policy. But what about the people already working in the building, and those soon on their way to occupy desks in this accident waiting to happen? Aren't they ALMOST as important as NYCHA's records?

In this case, we are told that they won't even let the Mayor know the whole truth, so Rudy may think that storing materials is the only problem. But it ain't!

But even with the Mayor ordering no warehouse storage at this horror, vendors are still being told to deliver any orders due after March 31st directly to the death trap! Further more, Central Office Staff is scheduled to move there in May, just weeks from now.

As far as we know, Chair Martinez has not been told how bad the conditions at L.I.C. really are, and so he hasn't a clue that he may find himself spending years in court when a young mother is taken from her family when a hunk of concrete loses its grip and crashes down on her.

For now, even the mice at L.I.C. are very careful where they walk. And the roaches try to look up as much as possible.

This is serious stuff, and if people get hurt just so Finkel's Friends can make some crooked money, we hope others at NYCHA will join us in doing anything we can to insure Finkel, his friends and those who run NYCHA are all charged in a criminal complaint.

© MM Public Housing Spotlight and John Ballinger. All rights reserved.

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Contact Jack Ballinger at nychaspotlight@netscape.net
for a Real Audio sound clip containing a
conversation wherein DOI Investigator
John Kilpatrick discusses how he learned
that 2 NYCHA execs attended
a Mafia connected contractor's funeral .

Contact Jack Ballinger at nychaspotlight@netscape.net
for a Real Audio sound clip containing
the (3 Meg) confession of Tony DiAlto.
Tony was a member of a group of
corrupt Contract Inspectors working at NYCHA.
Neither Tony nor the person he confessed to
sharing his bribes with (Richard Penesi)
were ever charged, let alone prosecuted, by DOI.

For a great source of general tenant information,
visit the Tenant Net Home Page |

And for a great source of New York City news and
policy information, visit our friends at the Gotham Gazette

Public Housing Spotlight on NYCHA

NYCHA Heroics?Save the Records, not the People!

Click on the appropriate link to view earlier stories on this political boondoggle:

© MM Public Housing Spotlight and John Ballinger. All rights reserved.

Links to all Issues are at page bottom

Public Housing Spotlight

Directory page with Issue overviews. | Current Issue of the Public Housing Spotlight | Special NYCHA Corruption Issue | ATIS (Timekeeping System) Issue | Spotty's Home |

Public Housing Spotlight
on NYCHA

NYCHA Heroics?
Save the Records,
not the People!

Click on the appropriate link to view
earlier stories on this political boondoggle:

Public Housing
Spotlight

Directory page with Issue overviews. |
Current Issue of the Public Housing Spotlight |
Special NYCHA Corruption Issue |
ATIS (Timekeeping System) Issue |
Spotty's Home |